1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a facsimile equipment suitable for use in a facsimile system in which every data on received documents are once stored in an image memory enabling to display a desired part of the document in a display unit for confirmation of its contents and more particularly, to a facsimile equipment in which the document data stored in the image memory can be transmitted directly from the image memory to another facsimile equipment, thus realizing remarkable saving of paper resources and time necessary for the transmitting operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has recently been proposed a facsimile equipment in which all document data received from any sender facsimile equipment through a telephone line are once stored in an image memory and a desired part of the document data is visually displayed on a display unit to allow the confirmation of whether printing out of the displayed part is necessary, whereby only necessary parts of the document data can be selectively printed.
However, in such a conventional facsimile equipment, when it is desired to transmit the received document to another facsimile equipment after the received document is displayed on the display unit, the document data must be printed out by a printer and thereafter read by a document reader to generate image data and then to transmit the image data to a desired facsimile equipment.
For the conventional facsimile equipment capable of displaying received documents, when it is desired to transmit a received document data to another facsimile equipment, the following operations (1) to (3) are performed.
(1) Printing document data by a printer. PA0 (2) Converting the printed document into image data by a document reader. PA0 (3) Inputting address of a destination facsimile equipment and transmitting the image data to the destination. PA0 (1) The quality of the image data to be transmitted is degraded depending on the resolution of the printer. PA0 (2) The printed image is again read by the document reader, thus degrading the image quality depending on the resolution of the document reader. PA0 (a) management data memory means for registering therein pointers and various sorts of attribute data for identification of the respective document data stored in the image memory, PA0 (b) input means for inputting a command for display of a list of the document data stored in the image memory, PA0 (c) display control means, in response to an input of the document data list display command from the input means (b), for displaying on the display unit a list of the attribute data of respective document data registered in the management data memory means (a) in a predetermined format, PA0 (d) input means for selectively specifying a single or a plurality of document data on the basis of the attribute data in the displayed list, PA0 (e) input means for specifying and inputting one or a plurality of facsimile transmission destinations, PA0 (f) calling control means for calling the facsimile transmission destination specified by the input means (e), and PA0 (g) transmission control means for specifying the document data selected by the input means (d) on the basis of the pointers registered in the management data memory means (a), reading out the specified document data from the image memory, and transmitting the read-out document data to the facsimile transmission destination connected to the facsimile equipment through the calling operation of the calling control means. PA0 (h) input means for specifying and inputting a plurality of facsimile transmission destinations as circular destinations of the selected document data according to its circulation order, PA0 (i) management data memory means for registering therein the specified circular destinations and circulation order as a circulation table data, and PA0 (j) retrieval means for sequentially retrieving the circular destinations specified by the input means (h) on the basis of the registered circulation table data according to the specified circulation order. And the calling control means PA0 (f) calls the retrieved circular destinations in an order retrieved by the retrieval means (j) until interconnection to the circular destination is successfully attained; and the transmission control means (g) transmits the circulation table data together with the document data to the circular destination connected to the facsimile equipment through the calling operation of the calling control means (f). PA0 (k) management data memory means for separately storing therein circulation table data indicative of the circular destinations of the received document data and circulation order when the circulation table data are attached to the received document data, PA0 (l) circulation table data updating means for updating contents of the stored circulation table data corresponding to its own station of the circular destination as the finished circulation of the own station, and PA0 (m) retrieval means for sequentially retrieving the circular destinations to be circulated next to its own station on the basis of the circular destinations and circulation order specified by the updated circulation table data. PA0 (A) document reading means for reading an input document to generate document data, PA0 (B) input means for specifying and inputting a plurality of facsimile transmission destinations as the circular destinations of the generated document data according to its circulation order, PA0 (C) management data memory means for registering therein the specified circular destinations and circulation order as circulation table data, PA0 (D) retrieval means for sequentially retrieving the circular destinations specified by the input means on the basis of the registered circulation table data according to the specified circulation order, PA0 (E) calling control means for calling the retrieved circular destination in an order retrieved by the retrieval means (D) until interconnection to the circular destination is successfully attained, and PA0 (F) transmission control means for transmitting both the circulation table data and the document data to the circular destination connected to the facsimile equipment through the calling operation of the calling control means (E).
As a result, the conventional facsimile equipment is not only unable to avoid consuming paper resources but also he facsimile equipment also is complicated in the transmitting operations.
When the received document data is transmitted through the above transmitting operations, the image quality is decreased because:
When the transmission is repeated many times, the quality of image becomes so poor that it is difficult to read the document.